Nuclear power has been out-performed and over-taken by the renewable energy sector and Australian governments must embrace the rise of clean power, say the Australian Greens.

Greens spokesperson for nuclear affairs, Senator for Western AustraliaScott Ludlam, said the report published this week by major think-tank Worldwatch found that in 2010 world-wide cumulative installed capacity from wind turbines, biomass, waste-to-energy and solar power surpassed installed nuclear capacity for the first time in history.

“The Rubicon has been crossed for nuclear power – it is a dying industry and there is no turning back,” said Senator Ludlam. “Renewable capacity additions per annum have been outpacing nuclear start-ups for 15 years. In the United States of America – the world’s largest economy – the share of renewables in new capacity additions boomed from two percent in 2004 to 55 percent in 2009, with no new nuclear capacity added in that time.”

“With nuclear power in decline, ambitious projections about the future of uranium mining are either delusional or disingenuous. Uranium mining makes no environmental sense and it has become clear that it makes no economic sense, given that it already contributes just 0.3 percent of Australia’s export revenue and just 0.03 percent of Australian jobs.”

Senator Ludlam said total investment in renewable energy technologies around the world in 2010 was estimated at $243 billion.

“While investment in renewable power flourishes, the nuclear industry is on life-support. Without massive government support, funded by tax-payers, it would not survive in an open energy market. Nuclear power plants can’t even get insurance,” he said. “Looking at the human, environmental and economic bottom lines – nuclear power is a dead end.”

Media Contact: Giovanni Torre

The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2010-2011: Nuclear Power in a Post-Fukushima World was published by Worldwatch this week. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 20 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org. The report’s lead author Mycle Schneider is an independent international consultant on energy and nuclear policy based in Paris. He founded the Energy Information Agency WISE-Paris in 1983 and directed it until 2003. Since 1997 he has provided consulting services to the French and German Environment Ministries, USAID